Nasrul seeks more AIIB investment in country's energy sector

State Minister for Power, Energy and Mineral Resources Nasrul Hamid has said he would like to see the involvement of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) in Bangladesh's energy sector on a larger scale.

"There are huge investment opportunities in gas pipeline projects, underground transmission lines, modernisation of distribution lines, renewable energy, gas meters, storage systems, wind fuel, among others. We want to provide quality uninterrupted power. It is this progress that makes us keen to have the AIIB as our partner," Nasrul said after AIIB Vice Chairman Rajat Misra paid him a courtesy call at his Secretariat office today (5 March).

The state minister noted that currently, per capita power generation is 602 kilowatt hours. "But, we want to increase it to 1,500 kilowatt hours promptly. [Therefore,] Huge action, huge investment."

At the meeting, Rajat Misra said Bangladesh is one of the partners of the AIIB.

Commenting on the state of energy master plan and Rooppur transmission system, he said, "The AIIB is working on development of a distribution system in Bangladesh."

At the meeting, the issues of privatisation of transmission systems, renewable energy, electricity import-export, among others, were also discussed.

At present, the Power Grid Company of Bangladesh is implementing four projects worth $956 dollars funded by the AIIB. 

There are, currently, six proposed projects worth $3,068 million in the power sector.